Road restrictions during breakup ???

[whitepine]

Hi Up here in northern Minnesota in the spring they check the roads and when the state determines they put road weight restrictions on in the spring. Because of the warm January there has been talk they may put them on (the weather just turned colder back to normal) road restrictions stop all movement of logging trucks. I heard they are 20 inches below normal. My question is does anyone know what they do? Are they drilling to see how much frost in road bed and put restrictions on when frost level gets so  low or starts decreasing? Or is it the appearance of frost heaves (we sure have a bunch of them in the roads this year). On a plowed road does the frost come out from the bottom or the top first? Thanks Tom

[badpenny]

  I believe it has to do with the number of days/nights in a row at or above freezing point in a normal year. I live near Backus, and have dealt with this issue for many years, and am on the e-mail list from MN-DOT for when the weight restriction changes. They usually send a notice 3 workdays prior to a change
                                                    badpenny

[Murf]

Different areas judge different ways, some just sort of guess based on weather and experience, some actually measure soil temperatures.

Around here there was a big commotion about this last year. The county finally over a lot of roads that had been the responsibility of the various townships in the county. Everybody thought that would mean deeper pockets and so better roads.

Nope, it seems the clever people in the county roads department had a better idea.  :

They posted every single road as permanently weight restricted to 5 tons per axle, not just springtime, and no exceptions. Used to be local deliveries were exempt, not anymore. 

The local lumber yards, the fuel oil people, everybody needed new trucks, or tag axles added to the old ones where possible.

Only guy who was happy about it was the local truck dealer.   

[Black_Bear]

I am going to generalize here so this doesn't apply to every town, but here in northern New England most towns have a road commisioner. It is his/her job to post the roads during the spring, or as we have also seen here in Maine, during February.

Most of the road commisioners that I have dealt with, and as Murf stated,  merely observe the condition of the road; most of them are good old boys and have been around awhile so they know which roads are more susceptible to break up if subjected to heavy loads. Often, when the roads get posted, you can see the road bending in a wave like pattern as the truck travels along the road.

The road commisioners are usually easy to deal with unless they catch you on a posted road, then they get p*ssed off and your name is mud (no pun intended). They will often work with you because they know how important it is to the loggers and truckers to get the wood to the mill. Trucking during the night is often the only way to get wood out during the early spring. Once the sun hits the gravel it begins to thaw and you will have to shut her down.

The frost will leave the plowed ground at different rates and is dependent on the amount and time of cold weather, the aspect of the road to the sun, and the material that comprises the surface layer. It really takes a long time for the soils to warm up in the spring.

The majority of logging roads in northern New England are gravel surfaces that will generally have to be closed for at least two weeks every spring. Most guys look for spring wood that is located adjacent to hard top roads that may not get posted at all. Some guys go to Florida for two weeks to a month during spring, others use the time to perform maintenance on their equipment. Some paddle through the mud.